§ MR. R. N. FOWLERrose to call attention to the affairs of South Africa, and to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies questions relating to Algoa [Delagoa] Bay, Basutoland, and the separation of the Eastern Province of the Cape of Good Hope. In the first place, he desired information with regard to Delagoa Bay. This was a Portuguese colony, and rumours had recently been circulated to the effect that it was about to be annexed to the German Empire. It was of considerable importance with regard to our South African possessions; but whether valuable or not he should be glad of any information the Govern- 791 ment could give. The next Question had reference to Basutoland, the governing chief of which had repeatedly requested that he might be allowed to become subject to Her Majesty, and that request had at last been complied with. As to the Orange Free State, it was, he contended, in a much better position in consequence of the course which England had taken than would otherwise have been the case; for a great Power like England would take care that no irregularities were committed on the frontier. Complaints had frequently been made that the Government of the Orange Free State were bent upon exterminating the unfortunate Basutos, and he submitted that if the people of the Free State were as unoffending as their advocates asserted they had no ground of objection to the course we had taken. Complaint had, he might add, been made of the course which had been taken by this country with regard to the Diamond Fields. They had been claimed by the Orange Free State; but he had no doubt General Hay and Sir Henry Barkly had arrived at a correct decision in the matter. Even if they had come to the conclusion that those Fields belonged to the Orange Free State, it was, he thought, impossible that they should continue under its dominion; for the population of the Diamond Fields consisted mainly of English people, besides Europeans and Americans, and though leading a rough life, included a large number of gentlemen of education, and it was not likely that they would consent to be governed by the regulations of the Orange River Free State. He therefore thought our Government did only right in taking measures to secure the safety and good order of that important territory. He wished, in the next place, to advert to a question which had created great interest in the Cape Colony—the separation of the Eastern Province. Towards the close of last Session, when it was impossible to have any discussion on the subject, an Act for responsible Government at the Cape was sent home. He, however, ventured to ask a Question with regard to it; and his hon. Friend the Under Secretary for the Colonies in reply stated that a Bill for conferring responsible Government on the Cape had the year before been negatived by the Legislative Council by a majority of 1, but that last year it was carried by a similar majority, the fact being that in the 792 interval two hon. Members who had opposed before the Bill, after consultation with their constituents, and finding the preponderance of feeling among them in favour of responsible Government, voted for it. Such was the answer of the hon. Gentleman. But Gentlemen having changed their views on the subject without announcing the fact to their constituents and offering themselves for re-election, had voted in favour of the scheme and had thereby violated the trust their constituents had reposed in them. The result had been that a very violent agitation had sprung up in the Eastern Province in favour of separation from the Western Province. The House was aware that he had for a long time been anxious that the Cape Colonies should be united into one federation; but, at the same time, the feeling in the Eastern Province had grown so strong in favour of separate government that he should only be doing his duty if, without giving any opinion of his own, he laid their views before the House. The Western Province had belonged originally to the Dutch, and most of its inhabitants preserved their old manners and language; whereas the Eastern Province had been originally colonized by Englishmen, who were attached to our laws and customs. It was an unfortunate circumstance that party politics in the colony should generally turn upon the question of the preponderance of either the Eastern or the Western Provinces. He might state as regarded the Eastern Province that a Petition had been presented to the Queen from it containing 13,670 signatures. The number of registered voters in the district was 13,365, and it had been very much signed by them. The total number of male adults, white and coloured, of the 18 districts was 46,455; of this number it had been estimated that Natives and others not qualified to vote constituted nearly 30,000, so that out of 16,000 people qualified to vote 13,000 had signed this Petition, which showed the importance attached by that Province to the question. The value of the fixed property of the Western Province was nearly £9,000,000 and about £9,500,000 in the Eastern. From 1861 to 1872 the Customs had yielded in the Western Province £1,315,000, and in the Eastern £1,182,000; the imports in the Western had been £9,802,000, and in the East- 793 ern £12,000,000; the exports had been £5,500,000 in the Western against £17,300,000 in the East. The population, according to the Census of 1870, was 346,000 in the Eastern Province, against 236,300 in the Western Province. But in the face of these facts the expenditure upon public works in 1870 had been only £291,000 in the Eastern Province, as against £343,000 in the Western Province, although the public Revenue for the two Provinces was £370,299 and £291,000 respectively. Thus, while there was an excess of Revenue on the side of the Eastern Province, there was an excess of expenditure as regarded the Western Province. With regard to intelligence there were 25 newspapers having 32 weekly issues published in the former Province, and only 7 newspapers having 15 weekly issues published in the latter. It was under these circumstances that the Eastern Province not being satisfied with the present state and believing that their interests were not duly represented in Capetown, asked for a separate Government. They complained that the Colonial Parliament was held at a distance from their Province, and that whereas the first responsible Minister, the Colonial Secretary, his private secretary, the Under Colonial Secretary, the Attorney General and his clerk, and Clerk of the Peace, the Treasurer General, the Chief Clerk for Public Works, and the Chief Clerk for Native Affairs, all belonged to the Western Province, only two Members of the Government—the Minister of Public Works and the Secretary for Native Affairs—belonged to the Eastern Province. Hon. Members must admit that this was not a proper representation of the Eastern Province on the Government. From these facts it seemed to him that this was a question for the people of the Province themselves, and if they had a well grounded cause of complaint it was well that the attention of the Government should be called to it. He had to thank the Government for what they had already done for South Africa. The course adopted in regard to Basutoland would. be a great advantage to South Africa, and he hoped that further beneficial results would continue to flow from it.
§ MR. KNATCHBULL-HUGESSEN,in reply, said, no doubt there was a great advantage in having to deal with 794 such an amiable critic as the hon. Gentleman (Mr. R. N. Fowler); but there was also some disadvantage in dealing with so vague a Resolution as that which he had brought forward. As to "Algoa Bay," to which the hon. Gentleman announced his intention of calling attention—[Mr. R. N. FOWLER: It is a misprint]— he might remind him that there was such a place, and that it was going on as well as could be expected. "Delagoa" was 750 miles north of "Algoa Bay," which was the bay of which Port Elizabeth, in the Eastern Province of the Cape Colony, was the chief town. [Mr. R. N. FOWLER intimated that he had informed his hon. Friend privately of the mistake.] He did not complain of the mistake on his own account, but that the House might have been misled by the non alteration of the Resolution. At Delagoa Bay there was a long-pending dispute between the Portuguese and English Governments with regard to a portion of the territory adjoining. The northern part of the Bay always belonged to Portugal, and had been so regarded in various Treaties; but England had obtained a certain portion of the territory on the southern part of the Bay, which was stated to have been ceded to Captain Owen in 1823 by the Kings of Tembi and Mapoota. These disputes had gone on for some time; there was no very accurate definition of the territory, and it was a matter of some importance upon several accounts. One reason was the probable importance of this Bay to the future development of Natal. Then with regard to what might possibly happen in relation to the slave trade, the Government were of opinion that it was not desirable to give up our position of advantage to put an end to that trade —a position which Lord Palmerston was always so anxious to maintain. He believed that if federation were carried out it would be of the greatest advantage to South Africa, and in this point of view also Delagoa Bay would. be of great importance. His hon. Friend had alluded to the possibility of Germany acquiring possessions on that coast. He had no wish to say anything unfriendly in respect to that Power; but, considering how much England had done for the country, he thought we should view with regret the establishment of any great Power in that part of the world 795 which might tend to hinder union and consequent progress. But it had been denied, both by the Government of Portugal and that of Germany, that there was any intention on the part of Portugal to sell, or Germany to buy, any portion of the territory, and the English and Portuguese Governments had referred their disputes as to boundaries to the arbitration of the President of the French Republic. Our case was now being prepared by Dr. Deane under the direction of the Foreign Office, and however much we might desire the development of South Africa, England had no desire to take by superior force anything which might be decided to belong of right to other people. Then as to Basuto Land—it was not a Crown colony of England; but in November, 1871, it was specially annexed to Cape Colony by an Order in Council confirming a local act for that purpose. Civilisation had not sufficiently advanced to justify the application of all Cape laws to Basuto Land; but it was under the administration of an able resident magistrate named Griffith; and, as regarded the financial condition, there was in May, 1872, a balance of between £4,000 and £5,000 in the local exchequer after paying the whole of the expenses, which wore defrayed by a hut tax readily paid. There were nine missionary stations, 38 out stations, and upwards of 2, 000 children now attending day schools; the Basutos were contented, and agriculture and other branches of industry were making satisfactory progress. As regarded the diamond fields, he looked back with great satisfaction to the course which had been pursued by the Government, and was ready to take his full share of the responsibility of their annexation to the British Empire. It was impossible that this country should ever give up a territory of that kind, and public opinion would endorse the action of the Government in its annexation. But he was bound to say that objections with respect to boundary had been raised by the Free State, and the Papers on that subject would shortly be laid on the Table. What had been done was this. According to the wish of the people, instead of their territory being annexed to the Cape Colony, an administrator, Mr. Southey, lately Colonial Secretary at the Cape, and one of the most eminent statesmen of South Africa, had been 796 sent to administer the Government. It was intended to constitute him "Lieutenant Governor," and under his administration he hoped the colony would enjoy a happy and prosperous future. As to the separation of the two Provinces, no doubt the subject of responsible Government had been a good deal debated at the Cape. Some years ago Sir Philip Wodehouse proposed to approximate it to the position of a Crown colony; but the Parliament of the Cape rejected that proposal. There remained, then, as the only alternative, the establishment of responsible Government. A Bill to carry out this system had been rejected in the Upper House by a majority of 1, though there was a majority in favour of the Bill in the Assembly. Two hon. Members of the Upper House who had formerly voted against the measure subsequently changed their opinions; and, accordingly, when the Bill was again submitted to the House it was carried by a majority of 1, the majority in the Assembly having increased. A large Petition had since been presented from the Eastern Province praying that responsible Government might not be granted without the separation of the two Provinces. It was the fact, however, that out of a Cabinet of five Members, two came from the Eastern Province, both of whom opposed responsible Government, so that the Province was not inadequately represented. Moreover, an analysis of the Petition, so far as Port Elizabeth was concerned, showed that the method sometimes adopted at home for the manufacture of Petitions had not improbably been imported into the colony. Eight-ninths of the signatures, moreover, came from districts which only contained one-third of the whole population of the Eastern Province. An important and influential section of persons in the Eastern Province had pronounced against the separation of the two Provinces, and these gentlemen maintained that public opinion had much altered there on this question. They had formed a Frontier League, and took for their motto—" Frontier Defence and Frontier Trade, for all Equal Justice, and an United Colony," words in which would probably be found the germ of the future prosperity of the country. Thus, public opinion was by no means unanimous in the Eastern Province in favour of separa- 797 tion; and the truth probably was that speech actually delivered; but the matter this feeling in favour of separation originated in Port Elizabeth and Graham's town, which were jealous that Cape town should be the seat of government. No doubt the distance from Capetown— 600 miles—was inconvenient; but this would diminish as the means of locomotion improved. Edinburgh was 400 and Inverness nearly 600 miles from London; but Scotland did not ask to be separated from England. Lord Kimberley, in a despatch just sent out in answer to this Petition, said that, in the opinion of Her Majesty's Government, a fair trial should be made of the new system of Government, especially as now for the first time the Eastern Members would have to deal with Ministers responsible to the Legislature and the constituencies. If the Eastern Province had grievances, the inhabitants had no right to assume that the new Government would be deaf to them. The Eastern Members would be able to make their voices heard; and, as the two Provinces were pretty evenly balanced as regards representation, there was no ground for expecting that the Legislature would deal unequally between them, or, indeed, that any question was likely to arise upon which Eastern and Western representatives would be, as such, opposed one to the other. As to the comparison between their case and that of Queensland, New South Wales contained 1,000,000 of square miles before Queensland was detached from her, and still contained an area nearly double that of the whole Cape Colony, whilst the difference in climate and products between New South Wales and Queensland justified the separation. Under all the circumstances, Her Majesty had been advised not to take any action upon this Petition; but those who signed it had been informed that their Petition had been graciously received. As a last resort, there might, perhaps, hereafter be a Provincial Assembly, subject to a general Legislature; but this should certainly not be resorted to until it had been proved that the existing system of Government could not be advantageously carried on. Some of the newspapers here had last year been hoaxed by a speech purporting to have been delivered by Sir Henry Barkly at the opening of the Legislature. He had promised in last year's debate to lay upon the Table the 798 Speech actually delivered; but the matter had been deferred until more complete Papers could be presented upon this and other South African subjects which were now in preparation, and he hoped soon to present them.
§ MR. EASTWICKsaid, he was glad the affairs of South Africa had been brought under the notice of the House, and highly appreciated the information given by the Under Secretary of State, especially as it was accompanied by a new expression of opinion on his part of the value of the colonies to the mother country. The Under Secretary had anticipated his intention to refer to a promise made by him on the 28th of May last, that he would lay on the Table the speech of the Governor; but he still felt bound to refer generally to the small amount of information supplied to Members respecting colonial matters. The information in the Library respecting Victoria was more complete than that as to any other colony, and the Acts and journals of the Government there were transmitted with much regularity. They had a record of the Acts of the Cape Legislature, but with several gaps; the Canadian journals were also incomplete; and respecting Bermuda there was a solitary journal for the year 1856. It was very hard hon. Members should have to go all over London for information which should be accessible within the walls of the House; and he trusted, when the new building in Parliament Street was finished, the library of the Board of Trade, supplemented by all Papers relating to the Colonies, would be open to hon. Members. The most important point connected with the Cape Colony was the proposed confederation. It was impossible to continue the present order of things without running continual danger of collision, as might be seen from a mere perusal of the recent Acts. Last year they had to pass an Act to authorise the Governor of Cape Town to make, without entering into a distinct treaty for the purpose, a bridge over the Orange River, which separated his territory from the Orange Free State. There was another Act for the extradition of criminals from the Orange Free State, though he could not understand how such an act should have become necessary; because the extradition of criminals was one of the stipulations made when the independence of that 799 State was granted in 1854. There were other cogent reasons in favour of federation; for instance, the diamond fields, which last year returned £376,000, and which would attract a large number of Europeans, especially English, to a State over which we had no control and thus add to the complications already existing, for it was impossible that a large number of British subjects could remain under the Government of the Orange Free State. In spite of what had been said he must consider the question of distance from Cape Town as an important one at present, considering the defective condition of communication. Many Members from the eastern side did not, in consequence of the distance, go down to Cape Town; and he thought that a better place for the seat of Government might be selected. The progress made by the Cape justified the belief that it might one day become a great Empire, stretching as far as Delagoa Bay, and a very short time would show that the Orange Free State and the South African Republic would be compelled to confederate with us, because they were shut out from the sea and would be dependent upon us for imports. The matter was virtually in our own hands, and no time should be lost in bringing the confederation to a conclusion.
§ MR. KINNAIRDsaid, he entirely agreed with the hon. Member who had just spoken, and complimented the Under Secretary of State on the pains he had taken to put the House in full possession of the state of affairs at the Cape. He was glad to find his hon. Friend had adopted a sound and manly policy in his treatment of colonial questions, and trusted he would continue to be guided by the same principles in the future. He believed that the colonists would be convinced that their interests now received far more attention than they formerly did in England.
MR. WHITEcomplimented the Under Secretary upon his disposition to do full justice to our colonists, but regretted he could not agree with his estimate on the policy of the Governor of the Cape, in reference to the diamond fields. As he (Mr. White) read the despatches, Sir Henry Barkly was only authorised by the Home Government to proclaim and annex as British territory —but by and with the consent of the 800 Cape Parliament—that portion of the diamond fields as really belonged to the Griqua Chief Waterboer. The Governor had, however, also seized and held possession of a part which belonged to the Orange Free State; although the Cape Parliament had refused its assent to any annexation whatever. Surely, the persons best able to judge of the propriety of annexation were the nearest neighbours of the territory annexed, and yet they had by their representatives put themselves in direct opposition to the Governor.
§ MR. KNATCHBULL-HUGESSENexplained that the Parliament had, on the contrary, last year, decided in favour of annexation by a large majority, upon which the country had been proclaimed British territory; but upon the presentation of the Bill this year to carry the annexation into effect, some delay had been occasioned by differences of opinion on the question of representation, and the Bill had been withdrawn until the matter in dispute had been settled: meanwhile, the wishes of the diamond field inhabitants had been so strongly expressed in favour of separate administration, that the steps had been taken to which he had already alluded.
MR. WHITEsaid, that explanation did not place the matter on a much better footing; for it would seem that when the Cape was a Crown Colony it was favourable; but when it became a responsible Government it was adverse to the Governor's policy of annexation. He was strongly of opinion that the little Republic—Orange Free State—had been very hardly treated by Sir Henry Barkly. In 1854, the Orange Free State had been established and its inhabitants released from their allegiance to the British Crown. Since then, the rights, privileges, and independence of the new State were never interfered with by the Cape Government till the diamonds were discovered, and then the territory north of the Orange river was re-annexed to the British Crown. The extension of our dominion north of the Orange river was adverse to the sound policy recommended by two previous Colonial Ministers—the late Lord Taunton and the late Duke of Newcastle. To interpose the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic between British territory and the savage tribes was, he held, a wise policy, as it had of late years exempted 801 the British taxpayers from having to disburse, as heretofore, many millions for periodically recurring Kaffir wars. He entirely concurred in the remarks which had been made by his hon. Friend (Mr. Eastwick) as to the great difficulty of obtaining precise information from the Government on colonial affairs. For instance, he had that morning—in reference to this discussion—consulted the latest and best known official authority, —namely, the Colonial List for the present year—and he was astonished to find that by its map the boundary of British Dominion was laid down at only two degrees north of the Bay of Natal, whilst there was now pending in Paris an arbitration between us and Portugal whereby we claimed—and he thought, justly claimed—as British territory fully four degrees north of Natal and including the greater part of the coast of Delagoa Bay.
§ SIR CHARLES ADDERLEYsaid, that when not long ago this country endeavoured to govern 40 colonies from England, to manage all their minutest affairs, and defend them by English troops, the House was obliged from time to time to interest itself in such subjects as the present, because enormous sums of English money were spent, while we ignored the capacity of the colonies for self-defence and self management. The policy which we then pursued injured the colonies even more than ourselves, because it weakened and demoralized them, while it produced numberless wars and disturbances among them. He could remember the time when this colony, much smaller than it was now, cost this country £1,000,000 a year on account of Kaffir wars. Since then, their ordinary expenses had been relieved by English taxpayers by more than £500,000 a-year. Recently they had approached self-support. He wished to obtain fuller information from the Under Secretary as to the prospect of our completely getting rid of all interference with the internal administration of South Africa. The Under Secretary had complained of the vagueness of the terms of his hon. Friend's Notice; but the Government kept the House in much more impenetrable darkness with regard to colonial subjects in general, and as to this colony in particular. He should like to know why the blue-book told us nothing until nearly two years after date? The latest in- 802 formation he could find in the library of the House of Commons with respect to this most important colony, now in a transitional state, was dated August, 1871. The occurrences of 1872 were not as yet reported. He should like to know how far English troops had been withdrawn from South Africa, and how far the expenses of the troops which were still there were repaid by the colony? When he had the honour to hold the office which his hon. Friend now held, it was arranged by Lord Carnarvon that, as responsible government was established in South Africa, that colony should gradually take upon itself its own defence, or that the arrangement made with Australia for payment should be adopted. As to the subject of Basutoland they had very little information. It was very desirable that they should be furnished with more information as to the terms on which it had been annexed. The boundary between the Orange Settlement and the annexation should by this time have been satisfactorily settled. All South African governments they hoped to see merged in the Government of the Cape. When the hon. Gentleman opposite said that the Government had no intention of abandoning any territory of South Africa he wished that that sentiment had been always held. He had stood alone in opposing the abandonment of the Orange River. It had cost us much to get rid of it, and its abandonment was now universally regretted. The inhabitants of the Orange River had the audacity to ask us—now they wished us to take them back to federation—to pay them on their return as we had on their leaving us, so that they wished to be paid both ways. With regard to federation of all South African Governments, which now seemed generally desired, the only question to be considered was on what terms this federation was to be established. That, however, was a matter for the colonists themselves to determine, and not the British Government. It would be, he thought, most unwise for us to originate or dictate such federation upon that point. We should hasten the time as much as possible when Natal should no longer be a Crown colony, but have constitutional government like the Cape. All would then be ready for federation; but it ought to be left to the colonists them- 803 selves, whether and how this federation should take place, and it would be unwise on our part to interfere further than to see that their views and ideas when arrived at were fairly carried out.
§ SIR CHARLES WINGFIELDsaid, he did not altogether agree in the view taken by his hon. Friend the Member for Brighton (Mr. White) with reference to the policy of Her Majesty's Government in respect to Kaffirland and the diamond fields, or in respect to the subject of confederation. That subject had been discussed in May last, and, speaking generally, the opinion of the hon. Members who took part in the debate, was in favour of confederation. He was not afraid that the confederation of the British colonies would lead to any oppression of the native population, but he could not but regard with some apprehension and uneasiness the proposal to bring in the two Dutch Republics. Slavery had no doubt been abolished in the Orange State, but it was still kept up under the name of apprenticeship in the Transvaal State, and from thence murderous expeditions were made into the native territories for the purpose of capturing slaves, and parents were butchered in order that their children might be secured. The Orange State, too, made it a condition of entering into the confederation that, while they would leave the question of offensive war to the general Government, they should themselves be at liberty to engage in what they called defensive war—a power which he feared would be used for the purpose of oppressing the native population. He thought that if the scheme of confederation was to be carried out, those two Dutch Republics should not be admitted into the confederation until they renounced all right to enter into hostilities with the tribes in the neighbouring territories without the consent of the federal Government.